Alabama vs. Tennessee odds, parlay, picks, line: Home team dominates, Tide try to avoid back-to-back losses — SkimNews
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- Alabama is a 7.5-point road favorite at No. 14 Tennessee for a 3:30 ET ABC kickoff, with 69% of tickets and 77% of money on the Tide against the spread and a lean to the Over 50.5.
- Alabama carries a 220-game regular-season streak without back-to-back losses — last hit in the final two games of Nick Saban's 2007 debut — trailing only Oklahoma's 245-game run from 1999-2020, but is coming off a 20-17 home loss to third-ranked Georgia.
- Tennessee will start redshirt freshman George MacIntyre over banged-up true freshman Faizon Brandon after MacIntyre threw three turnovers in last Saturday's 24-17 win over Arkansas, a decision coach Josh Heupel confirmed despite Brandon practicing this week.
- The home team has won the past five meetings in the Alabama-Tennessee series, and Tennessee is just 2-22 in its past 24 home games against AP Top-10 teams — but both of those wins were against the Tide in Knoxville.
- The SportsLine model projects Alabama to win 29-27, and gives the Tide a 71.3% chance to make the 12-team College Football Playoff that drops to 52.9% with a loss; quarterback Keelon Russell's Heisman odds lengthened to +1700 after going 16-of-30 for 185 yards against Georgia.
- Tennessee holds a 33.6% CFP chance that swings to 51.6% with a win or 16.8% with a loss, with the model rating only one remaining ranked foe for Alabama (No. 22 LSU) and two for Tennessee (No. 15 Kentucky and LSU, both in Knoxville).
Why it matters: Saturday's loser faces a steep 12-team College Football Playoff climb, with the SportsLine model putting Alabama's odds at 71.3% but just 52.9% with a loss and Tennessee's at 33.6% falling to 16.8% — a defeat that would also end a 220-game Alabama streak of avoiding back-to-back regular-season losses, the second-longest in FBS history.
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